The Mystery eBook

From a distance it presented a truly imposing sight.
The centre shot intermittent blasts of ruddy light;
explosions, deadened by distance, still reverberated
strongly; the broad canopy of brown-red, split with
lightnings, spread out like a huge umbrella. The
lurid gloom that had enveloped us in the atmosphere
apparently of a nether world had given place to a
twilight. Abruptly we passed from it to a sun-kissed,
sparkling sea. The breeze blew sweet and strong;
the waves ran untortured in their natural long courses.

At once the men seemed to throw off the superstitious
terror that had cowed them. Pulz and Thrackles
went to bail the extra dory, alongside, which by a
miracle had escaped swamping. The Nigger disappeared
in the galley. Perdosa relieved Handy Solomon
at the wheel; and Handy Solomon came directly over
to me.

XVIII

THE CATASTROPHE

He approached me with a confidence that proclaimed
the new leader. A brace of Colt’s revolvers
swung from his belt, the tatters of his blood-stained
garments hung about him.

“Well, here we are,” he remarked.

I nodded, waiting for what he had to disclose.

“And lucky for you that you’re here at
all, say I,” he continued. “And now
that you’re here, w’at are you going to
do? That’s the question—­w’at
are you going to do?” He cocked his head sidewise
and looked at me speculatively as a cat might look
at a rather large mouse. “We been a little
rough,” he went on after a moment, “and
some folks is strait-laced. There might be trouble.
And you know a heap too much.”

“What do you want of me?” I demanded.

“It’s just this,” he returned briskly.
“If you’ll lay us our course to San Salvador,
we’ll let you go as one of us and no questions
asked.”

“If not?” I inquired.

He shrugged his shoulders. “I leave it
to you.”

“There’s always the sea,” I suggested.

“And it’s deep,” he agreed.

We looked out to the horizon in a diplomatic silence.
I did not know whether to be angry, amused, or alarmed
that the man estimated my cleverness so slightly.
Why, the hook was barely concealed, and the bait of
the coarsest. That I would go safe to a sight
of San Salvador I did not doubt: that I would
never enter the harbour I was absolutely certain.
The choice offered me was practically whether I preferred
being thrown overboard now or several hundred miles
to southeastward.

I thought rapidly. It might be possible to announce
a daily false reckoning to the crew, to sail the ship
within rowing distance of some coast; and then to
escape while the men believed themselves many hundred
miles at sea. It would take nice calculation to
prevent suspicion, but as it was the only chance I
resolved upon it immediately.

“That’s all very well,” I said firmly,
“but you can’t get anywhere without me,
and I’m not going to put in two years and then
keep my mouth shut for nothing. I want a share
in the swag—­an even share with the rest
of you.”